Sharing Your Bread and the Ordered Circles of Charity

When a person honors his father and mother in their youth, and all the more in their old age, this is expounded concerning him in the received tradition through Isaiah the prophet (Isaiah 58:7): "Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the wandering poor into your house, when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?" How so? If a man has food in his house and wishes to make charity from it so that others may be supported from what is his, how shall he act? First let him support his father and mother; and if there is more left, let him support his brothers and sisters; and if there is more left, let him support the members of his family; and if there is more left, let him support the people of his neighborhood; and if there is more left, let him support the people of his alley; and from then on let him increase charity with the rest of Israel. Therefore it says afterward, "and bring the wandering poor into your house." "The wandering poor" - how so? When a person eats from what is his own, his heart is settled within him; but when he eats from what belongs to others, his heart is embittered within him, because he must eat from others. Happy is the man who walks in the ways of the Holy One and who has abundant food in his house, and his servants and household come and benefit from him at his table. Of him Scripture says (Psalms 128): "Happy is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you." Let one become like Aaron the High Priest, who set his intention on increasing peace in the world between Israel and their Father in Heaven, between a man and his fellow, and between a man and his wife. And let one become like David king of Israel, who set his intention on increasing charity in Israel. And let one become like Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai, who gladdened the faces of his students with the law. Of him Scripture says (Isaiah 53): "From the travail of his soul he shall see and be satisfied." From here they said: the Torah scholar of the generation bears the iniquities of the generation in which he lives, privately, and no creature can recognize it except the Holy One alone; and of him Scripture says (Isaiah 53), "and he shall bear their iniquities." And if there are ten who have done such a deed, and all the more an entire congregation, the enemy cannot prevail over them, as it says (Isaiah 54:17): "No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn; this is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication." "When you see the naked, cover him": just as the Holy One, may His great name be blessed forever and ever, saw the first man and Eve his wife who were naked, and did not wait even a single hour while they were naked but immediately clothed them, as it says (Genesis 3:21): "And the LORD God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them," so likewise let a person not see his father and mother going about in worn garments, but let him clothe them in fine garments. If a man clothes himself for five maneh, let him clothe his father and mother for ten maneh, and so let him choose for them all the good ways. They told a parable. To what may this be compared? To a king of flesh and blood who had a servant who fled from him. The king pursued him through all the lands until he fell into his hand. When he came into his hand, the king brought him into his house and showed him silver and gold and precious stones and pearls and all the good he had in his house. Afterward he took him out to the field and showed him gardens and orchards and all he had in the field. Afterward he showed him his sons and his servants, both great and small. After he showed him all these, the king said to him: You have seen that I need nothing from you; only come and do work with my sons and servants, and treat me with honor and fear me. So too the whole world belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Holy One asks of a person only that he honor his father and mother and fear them, for it is as though he honors the Holy One and fears Him, since the Holy One made His honor equal to the honor of father and mother, and made the fear of Him equal to the fear of father and mother, and like a servant toward his master, as it says (Malachi 1:6): "A son honors his father, and a servant his master." What is "To you, O priests, who despise My name" (Malachi 1:6)? When Israel offer turtledoves and young pigeons and bring the rest of the lesser holy offerings, but do not do the will of the Omnipresent, what is said of them? "To you, O priests, who despise My name." And even if a father's spittle runs down on his beard, let the son heed him at once. One might think that even if his father said to him, Transgress one of all the commandments stated in the Torah, he should heed him; one might think he should heed him in all matters. Scripture comes to teach: in everything he should heed him, except for transgression and robbery and a repulsive matter. Therefore it says, "To you, O priests, who despise My name." What is "and do not hide yourself from your own flesh"? They told a parable. To what may this be compared? To one who was imprisoned in a prison overseas for nine months, and three men came to him: one of them stood and sustained him in the prison, one of them took him out of the prison, and one of them gave him food until he reached an inhabited place. In time the three of them happened to be together before him. Let that man not say in his heart: This one is greater than that, and that one is greater than this; rather let him treat all three of them with honor as one.